Richard Rogers, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at 葫芦娃视频, was a recipient of the 2002 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography.
Rogers, along with coauthors Robert Hummer of the University of Texas at Austin and Charles Nam of Florida State University, wrote "Living and Dying in the USA: Behavioral, Health, and Social Differentials of Adult Mortality." The award was presented over the summer at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago.
"We embarked on this research because we saw a void in the literature and the ability to provide insight into an important area of inquiry," Rogers said. "The book is important by its very nature: it examines factors that affect who lives and who dies in America."
The book addresses the social problem of inequality in health and mortality. By using the National Health Interview Survey coupled with the Multiple Cause of Death file, the authors explored factors influencing mortality.
"We endeavored to make the book easily accessible and understandable, and also a central book within the areas of demography and public health," Rogers said. "Results from this book can be used by researchers to encourage additional research, by policymakers to base policy decisions and by individuals to determine what factors influence life and death and among those factors, which are most salient in their lives."
The professors examined the links between mortality and an array of possible factors including attending religious services, race, gender, family composition, mental health, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, functional limitations and health insurance coverage.
"With a book like this, social demographers serve society and the public by tracking key dimensions of societal well-being and pointing the way to making life - and death - better, more equitable, and just," said Pam Smock of the University of Michigan, who presented the award. "It is a work that belongs on all of our shelves, those of our students, those of our policymakers and those curious about state-of-the-art knowledge about mortality."